


Not Another Davekat Recap

by swiftMartyrdom (gatonip)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: (spoiler no one is fooled), M/M, even though they're sure they've got everyone fooled, not really a story just these nerds being not-so-secretly in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-08-14 20:08:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8027311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gatonip/pseuds/swiftMartyrdom
Summary: Sorry but it's another davekat recap. A brief look into these two nuggets' relationship upgrade.





	Not Another Davekat Recap

There are two distinctive eras pertaining to the 3-year journey on the meteor, unrecognizable at the time but unmistakable in the years long after the game ended. It’s the second era that everyone agrees was the much more pleasant of the two: the time in which Dave and Karkat had finally quit dancing around each other, and moved on to dancing together around everyone else.

In the first few years, getting the two opposing forces to communicate effectively with one another without something breaking or someone screaming was a headache no one really wanted to be bothered with. Everyone had their own agendas to keep themselves busy; alchemizing a new dining table every couple of days because _somebody_ smashed it in half again was just a nuisance. Riling Karkat up needlessly was Dave’s number one form of entertainment, and handing Dave’s ass back to him on splintered wood was Karkat’s. 

If you ask Kanaya, the reason their animosity began to shift to companionship laid heavily on Karkat’s loneliness. In adding up his misfortunes and mistakes and perceived failures, he incorrectly came to the assumption that he had left himself without a friend in the world (sans the Mayor; the Mayor is everyone’s friend). Hanging around Dave was a reprieve from his natural isolation, and when the possibility of friendship became apparent he never looked back. How could he? The only thing behind him, in his eyes, was an endless void of solitude. This of course was preposterous, which Kanaya often points out to him as she runs her fingers through his tangled mess of hair during their cuddle pile get-togethers. No one blamed him for the things that were out of his control, and no matter what he told himself they all loved him dearly. With or without Dave, he would not have been alone.

If you ask Rose, the tumultuous waves of their relationship only began to calm once Dave began finding himself. Dave’s toxic upbringing and life commitment to irony had stunted him so, and it was not until he was presented with a 3 year reprieve from Earth society and actively fighting for his life in the game that he had the chance to seriously consider what he wanted for himself, what he stood for, and why. He found meaning where he previously claimed there was only surface interest, and vice versa. It was not until he came to understand who he honestly is, Rose attests, that he could begin to have equally honest relationships with others. His relationship with her was the first to undergo this shift, evolving from snark and banter to a deeper respect for one another (accompanied by snark and banter). His relationship with Karkat, however, offered a new challenge. While Rose had known Dave for many years and his slip ups were something she could brush aside easily as unintentional, Karkat didn’t come with the same safety net. This caused much of the initial tension between them, but once Dave became more sincere about everything about him, Karkat came to accept him more, and the two have been inseparable ever since.

(You could ask Kanaya or Rose this question, but they are similarly inseparable and wouldn’t provide such a lengthy explanation while in the presence of the other, as much more productive things could be accomplished in such a situation. Like kissing for example.)

The second year brought about another shift that, at the time, no one truly understood. There was a sense of tension between Dave and Karkat, that much was apparent, but it was not the same hostility as before. Quite the contrary, the two spent much of their days glued at the hip and while they argued near constantly, it was playful mockery and the threats of bodily harm no longer held the promise of follow through that they once did. No, the shift was something much different. It was something akin to constant discomfort emanating from Dave and Karkat, as if they had swallowed something that had gotten caught in their throats that they couldn’t dislodge.

(Their heart and their pusher, respectively.)

While they were glued at the hip metaphorically, on a physical level they greatly fluctuated day to day, moment to moment, from being in constant contact to keeping ample distance between each other. More than once they could be found refusing to sit next to one another without a cushion between them, yet later that day be tangled up in each other playing video games. Sometimes they couldn’t keep their eyes off of each other; sometimes they refused to look each other in the face. Most everyone chalked it up to General Bullshit, something not foreign when dealing with Dave or Karkat, and so having the levels of General Bullshit rocket up to 11 when they were both involved seemed only natural.

The second era has no definitive start point – just as the first has no definitive end point – but is often assumed to have began sometime around the beginning of the final year aboard the meteor. During this time it became apparent to everyone and their mother/lusus/familial figure that something of a More Than Just Bros nature had afflicted Dave and Karkat’s relationship, and while it was up for debate just what the two had categorized it as, what was unmistakable was that something was going on, and that they weren’t ready to be public about it. For privacy reasons, they would defend it as later on: they needed time to figure out their situation by themselves and didn’t want anyone nosing in on their findings until they were prepared “with a PowerPoint and a pie chart and everything”. 

This was, of course, no big deal to anyone. It was just that for all the secrecy they were looking to maintain, they were absolutely shit at hiding that something was going on. Both would look around wildly and obviously to see if anyone was observing them before so much as holding hands. The looks on their faces and their disheveled hair screamed to the world that they had very recently been making out, even if no one ever caught them in the act. The lingering stares across the table at group meals were as covert as Steve Buscemi dressed up to infiltrate a high school. While they were regularly teased by the likes of Vriska (who had teased them long before they had even successfully became friends), everyone else let Dave and Karkat believe they had successfully fooled them into thinking they were just the best of bros.

Their biggest slip up, which became the catalyst to them announcing their relationship later on, came about the day that the game was won. As everyone rendezvoused on the lily pad following their respective battles, the two quite literally _sprinted_ to one another in a tearful hug. The relief in knowing that the other had survived – something they swear they knew would happen but naturally still feared would not – made them careless, and in front of Paradox Space and everyone they kissed happily. They only realized their mistake after breaking apart, but the general mirth of finding out that everyone had made it prompted no one to bring attention to it. As Kanaya nearly crushed Karkat in a loving hug and Dave and Rose shared an embrace that was much less of a chiropractor’s wet dream, their anxiety subsided and the focus shifted on entering their new world and rebuilding civilization.

The day they finally felt comfortable enough to announce themselves as an item, even John – who had wrapped his head around Dave dating Karkat long before he wrapped his head around Dave not being the Big Straight he’d projected himself as being, a feat only accomplishable by John Egbert – just rolled his eyes as he congratulated the two. Not a living soul was surprised by the reveal of the two most obviously love struck idiot boys their friend party had to offer, and they’ll admit that past their slip up they knew they were no longer as much of a well kept secret as they had hoped (though they’ll swear up and down no one was any the wiser in the final year on the meteor).

There are two distinctive eras pertaining to the 3-year journey on the meteor: the era of Dave and Karkat sewing the seeds of friendship, and the era of Dave and Karkat reaping the fruit of a relationship they got instead.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at like 4am weeks ago, saved it as gay.doc. Figured I should share it
> 
> ...it's hard to move on from Homestuck when you're suddenly overcome with the realization of how great davekat is


End file.
